Hi Steve, I have just discovered your website, and via Ocean Navigator have ordered your storm tactics book (Surviving the Storm). We are preparing for a 14-month trip first from East Coast US to Europe, then down the clasic trading route to Brazil, and through the Strait of Magellan in January, & up the west coast of SA, returing home via Panama Canal and the Yucatan. I have had a lot of people recommend the Sea Station unit to us. It’s a lot to jam on a well-found 36 ketch, but I am tempted. It has weather fax through the SSB as part of the software. I would like your comments. Do you think this is any substitute in regions where weather fax is unavailable? It uses low power and is no big deal for the computer, so long as we have power. Many Thanks, Andy.
Hi Andy: The issue of satellite direct cloud images is tricky. If the system works well, and if you know how to use it (two big “ifs”!), in some areas there will be value. Two good examples would be looking upwind of the Cape Horn area, as you’ve suggested, and watching early formation of tropical disturbances. The weather fax capability is available in many packages, at far less cost. We’ve recently started using Sailmail, an e-mail based SSB system, which comes with an automatic fax program–easy to use in the extreme. As to Seastation 2000, we thought about getting a system ourselves, and checked with two experienced navigators who had used it. They both told me it was difficult to install and use–at least the version to which they were exposed. As both of these guys were programmer types, and I am definitely NOT, we gave the program a pass for now. There are a number of other satellite direct systems to look at–and it may be that the current version of Seastation 2000 is more user friendly.
Finally, one feature which I would consider essential before making the investment is the ability to animate the images–this is a key factor in getting a feel for what is going on. Let us know your experience, if you go for a system–and good luck on the cruise. Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
